Contestants were asked to build applications for Samsung TV using the Samsung SDK with the grand prize winner taking home a whopping $200,000 in cash. The contest took in submissions till November 11, 2010 and a total of 56 entries were received, of which 13 entries were declared winners at various levels.

The grand prize winner was WeDraw, a simple but brilliantly implemented Living Room Game. WeDraw lets contestants win points and compete by guessing another player’s drawing. One person draws using their finger on a smartphone, the others guess. The faster you guess the more points you get and if you guess it right, its your turn to draw. The application was developed by Alan Queen, Juan Pablo Gnecco and Daniel Gnecco of MOVL. Take a look at the video below:

The 2nd prize went to TheGymbox - Weekly Workouts On Demand, which delivers weekly, full-length workouts on demand in a variety of formats. The 3rd prize went to Armchair Astronaut, allows you to explore the solar system in stunning high definition incorporating a combination of real and digitally-created 3D content. Take a look at all the submissions and winners over here.

The TV is being projected as the next hot application delivery medium and we are seeing all the big players including Google trying to get a presence here and woo the developers. It is a foregone conclusion that the winning platform will be the one that will build a large developer ecosystem around it and have the best quality applications. Samsung’s developer contest was probably the first that we have seen and definitely not the last one. The applications submitted give us a good glimpse nto the future of TV as an application delivery platform and the immersive experiences that can be created with it. Are you ready to develop applications for the TV? Will 2011 be the Year of the TV Apps or is it still early days yet?

About the author:Romin Irani
Romin loves learning about new technologies and teaching it to others. Follow me on Google+